Usmanov: Henry Should Be Involved

Arsenal's second majority shareholder Alisher Usmanov thinks Thierry Henry should return to Arsenal, but not as a player. Usmanov didn't outline exactly which role he thought Henry should take or how he should contribute, whilst he stressed he has no power over decision making at Arsenal.

It's reported that Usmanov had dinner with Henry earlier this week and the Red & White Holdings frontman told L'Equipe, ''The presence of a champion can radically change the soul of a team, that's what Thierry Henry showed last year when he came back to Arsenal. But I think that comebacks only succeed once. That's why I think the decision to come back belongs only to Thierry.'

'I don't have any powers in terms of decisions at the club but there are a few players with whom I am in contact,' Usmanov told L'Equipe. 'My favourite is probably Thierry. He should be involved at the club but not as a player.'

'He has another role to play, a more important role. Take the example of Patrick Vieira at Manchester City. He is also a symbol of Arsenal but he is helping another club. We have to avoid that with Thierry.'

Use your social login to comment on front page articles. Login using you Facebook, Twitter, Google or LinkedIn accounts and have your say!

Your Comments (oldest first)

Is anyone honestly taken in by this sort of populist sentiment? I can’t wait for his next public utterance, “Yeah, I think Henry should form a motivational coaching axis with Patrick Vieira, Timmy Adams and Lionel Brady, he should definitely come back to the club in some capacity too. Me and my friends were only talking about this in the Runners pub on Blackrock Road last week. Woooo, come on you Goonies.”

Whilst I am a fan of the old saying "A wise man speaks when he has something to say, a fool speaks when he has to say something", in this case Stan's silence and inability to do, well, anything, speaks volumes.

We have plenty of people saying things. It doesn't always go down too well when PH-W speaks up and we have IG speaking as CEO and AW as manager. I guess SK will speak when he has something to say not when he has to say something. Sounds about right to me.

Not at all, he's the owner, he should have a dialogue with the people that've been at the football club way before him - the fans. Hill Wood as absolutely no influence at all, all he does is act like the fans are a total inconvenience. The Dortmund manager had it right when he said it's sad what's happened to English football, it really is upsetting what has happened to our game - it's not a game anymore, it's just business.

There's no need for Kroenke to have a dialogue with anyone other than those he has recruited to have a dialoge with 'the people'. Most wouldn't want to hear his take on the role of business anyway. It's far better he stays in the background and lets those he pays to do the job do it. As for Dortmund it was their CEO who took a potshot at English football's oligarchs but there's far more that Arsenal share with the German model than English football in general does.

If Stan got bought into our club for the right reasons then remaining silent and not bothering to show up to games wouldn't be so bad. But he got into football to make money, and that's never going to work ... at least from our point of view. Stan might actually get out of this with a health profit eventually, but at what expense to the club? He keeps silent because he has nothing to say, fair enough, but the only reason he has nothing to say is because he doesn't actually give a crap about the heart and soul of the club.

Yeah sorry CEO, not sure why i put manager. What do you think we have in common with the german model? I'm struggling to think of anything here, cheap seats, sold out stadiums (geniunely), safe standing, profit not put before performance are all things we don't have. Kroenke owns the club, if you invest in a company, and a complete unknown comes in - you'd want to know what direction he intends to take with it, not someone who he employs to give you mealy mouthed platitudes about us being able to compete in a couple of years. He's here for the money, simple as that, if money could be guaranteed at expense of performance - he'd take it in a blink of an eye. There should't be any place for people like him in the game.

Kroenke got into sporting enterprises because he can make money out of associated activity, property utilisation, advertising sponsorship, broadcasting opportunities et c. None of that is inconsistent with a successful football club in fact for his business to succeed he needs the club(s) to be sporting successes which in turn requires the businesses to be successes. It's quite different from the patriarchal days of yore but the world we live in is quite different too. If he's good at making money then that's exactly what we'll need. In which case I couldn't care less whether he's an Arsenal supporter or not. As long as he a competent businessman and not a self-serving oligarch looking to have his ego stroked while kissing the badge he's fine with me. The German model is founded on much the same financial prudence that Arsenal are modelling here.

Won't get back on this merry go round but what I will say is he's here to make money out of what you love, something you should associate with joy and anguish and all the emotions that go along with it, that's what it boils down to. Pure corporate greed. And talking of populist comments, Lady Nina having a moan up - his money was good enough for her tho, wasn't it? Pathetic.

Would you be in work if it weren't for 'pure corporate greed' motivating someone somewhere? Your wages will depend on some one making a profit somewhere. Far better for Arsenal to have someone good at making money owning the club rather than someone only able to spend it. Agree about Lady Nina though. So far she's made more out of her involvement in the club than SK has.

Usmanov is transparent. By the way, Stan doesn't own Arsenal, he's the majority shareholder. He doesn't live in London (so how can he attend the games) and he doesn't need to love the club, just to respect it and what it represents. How many billionaires are there, in fact, who are lifelong Arsenal fans? I do agree about Lady Nina as well.

Cookie Policy
At Vital Football, we along with most other modern websites use small files called 'cookies' to create the most secure, effective and functional website possible for our users. Without these files our business model, based on advertising, breaks down and we would be unable to continue to provide the services that you are here to utilise. By continuing to use this website after seeing this message, you consent to our use of cookies on this device unless you have disabled them. For full details please read our Cookie Policy which can be found here. However, if you would like to disable cookies on this device, please view our Cookie Policy which contains an opt-out tool for disabling advertising cookies. Please also visit our information pages on 'How to manage cookies' if you would also like to block all other types of cookies. Please be aware that parts of this site will not function correctly if you disable cookies.